Rare Photos! Pagoda Washing in Ueno
As I’ve written in Tokyo Direct Guide and this blog, Ueno is a beautiful place famous for its museums, pandas and other animals in the zoo, a shrine and its garden and cherry blossoms of 1200 trees. But today’s topic is a little different.
My camera says I took these photos at 14:00 on 7th January, 2012. I think I visited a museum and dropped in at Ueno Zoo.
It seemed that something would happen near the Pagoda because some workers put some cones around to make off-limits. I asked one of them why and he smiled, saying “You are very lucky!”
It was the day to wash the Pagoda by its sprinklers!
 |
| Let’s wash a pagoda! |
Sprinklers!! It was so exciting!!
According to him, people had to place some sprinklers on every building, including pagodas, to avoid fires because of some laws or something like that. So they make sure that the sprinklers work properly while they wash the pagoda.
 |
| This is how to wash a pagoda. |
Cool, isn’t it?
He told me that they do this twice a year without any announcement in advance.
If you see this during your travel, you are very lucky!
